Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to database systems and querying distributed database systems on a network, and, more particularly, to a process for creating and maintaining ontologies that interface with such systems.
Description of the Related Art
Database engineering practices and technologies of the last two decades have proven a poor match for the complex information handling and integration needs of modern enterprises. For instance, systems involving any sort of analytic component typically require extremely complex and fluctuating rules reflecting real-world situations. Using current techniques, the process of keeping such information systems current is error-prone and prohibitively expensive. Moreover, current systems have a fundamental and more severe problem: integrating data from two or more systems requires custom-made middleware, because it is impossible for the system to “understand” the content of the participating databases well enough to perform the required integration automatically.
In other words, the heterogeneous nature of these sources poses unique challenges having to do with access, accuracy, semantic understanding, completeness, and correlation of performance and maintenance information with relevant resources. The state of current technology is such that the physical constraints having to do with access are easing, but consistent answers to the questions involving content understanding and integration have not yet been found. Therefore, there remains a need in the art to address the problems associated with ontological integration in a highly distributed environment.